Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-03-29
WEBSTER'S SPELLER.
EVOLUTION OF THE ONCE POPU-
LAR "SPElLlNG BOOK"

Enterprise-The Fortunes of Con-
necticut School Teachers Work-The
Famous Select Fablcs.''
One of the books much in vogue in the
colonies, Thomas Dilworth's New Guide to
the English Tongue and when first pub
lished, about 1740, it was probably great
improvement on its predecessors, for it had
a great run in both countries. To-day, in
glancing through it, it seems nearly worth
less and this opinion of it began to take
shape towards the end of the Revolution,
when Joel Barlow probably only expressed
public sentiment in complaining that "lads
once lugged into it when young are afraid OF
all kinds of grammar all their days after"
At this time Noah Webster, fresh from Yale
college, was presented with an IS bill of Con
tinental currency worth about half that sum
in specie) by his father, and told that he must
strike out for himself To Connecticut col
lege bred lad this was equivalent to saying,
Teach school" and teach he did first in
Hartford and then in Goshen, N. Y, and
from practical experience became convinced
of the worthlessness of Dilworth.
To native bred Yankee an error is some
Shhi, W 10 vi ittNthi anu q fNF'i EiNNC VI
work something that needs improving Web
ster set himself to the task of reforming the
Anew Guide'-a work of no mean proportion
with the lack of pathological knowledge in
this country at that time-and after two
years of hard study completed his revision,
when he Travelled through the states, en-
deavoring to obtain copyright laws in order
to protect his work Returning to Hartford
with partial success, he next sought pub
Usher, but of course without success, So with
the aid of loan from Joel Barlow, he was
driven to the necessity Of taking the whole
risk upon his own shoulders; and Hudson s.
Goodwin, printers in Hartford, printed in
1874 5000 copies, taking from the author a
bond to make good any deficiencies there
might be.
Webster had originally intendedto call his
book "The American Instructor" but by the
advice Of DR.. Ezra Stiles, president of Yale
college, the title was changed to "a Gram
matical Institute of the English Language, -"
and nothing proves the real merit of the work
SO strongly as the fact that for twenty years
it bore that title, and yet lived, though at
the end of that period the name became ''The
American Spelling Book, and still later, in
q revised form, 1.-THE Elementary Spelling
Book" The book proved great success;
edition after edition was called for, and sup
planted nearly every book of its kind pub
lished in this country
1t was the custom then for authors to sell to
the printers the right to print editions for a
certain number of years, and accordingly
Webster sold his privilege to printers in Bos-
ton, Hartford, Albany, New York and Phila-
delphia, for transportation was then 80 diff
cult that none of these printers could inter
fere with each others sales. The copyright
was soon of great vaiue in 17S5 the book was
selling ut the rate of 500 week, and in 1890
the sales in a single state were 20,GG0 For
years the author lived on the proceeds from
the speier, while many publishers were coin
ing money out of it. In 1877, when the work
was revised. one printer gave him 5000 a
year for his term of copyright, and another
$40, 600 for the privilege of printing editions
for fourteen years. BY 1918, 5000, 900 copies
had been sold, and by 1s47, "a, 600 900, or an
average rate of nearly 900 copies a year
and from this time on it is safe TO estimate
tn sales at million copies annually.
Each printer varied his editions in partcu
| lars to please his own fancy The Philadel
| pha printer "cmbellishedr his with portrait
! Of the Father of his Country" and MIR
| Thomas, the great New England printer, not
| to be OutdOne, ornamented his with a vile
wood cut of what purported to be "Noaf
| Webster, Jr., Esq" This wood engraving
| and the absurd title of the book were made
for want of better the points of attack by
| those at enmity with him. "Mr. Grammatical
| Institute" "Mr Institutional Genius" "Mr
| Squire, Jr," were some of the names applied
to him, and William Cobbett went so far a!
| to draw up a mock will, in which he be
| queathed him six Spanish milled dollars, t.
be expended on new plate of his portrait a
the head of his spelling book, that whicl
graces it at present being so ugly that i
scares the children from their lessons; bu
this legacy is to be paid him only on condition
that be leaves out the title of Squire at tn
bottom of said picture, which is extremel,
odious in an American school book, and mus
inevitably tend to corrupt the political prin
ciples of the republican babies that beholt
it."
To all who studied the speller, the part tha
probably made the greatest impression wa
the Select Fables" These were an after
thought of the author, for they do not appea
in the earliest editions. How many have car
ried along, in after life, the moral lesson
taught by THE Country Maid and Her Mil
Pail, :" The Fox and the Swallow" 'The Ca
and the Rat" "The Fox and the Bramble.
and many other equally sharp examples O
evil doing, which were probably quite as eff
cacious on the ethics as the corrections il
pronunciation were on the language of tn
children.
The spelling book slowly underwent altera
atoms The printers discovered very 500
that the title was clumsy, and changed it t
"The American Spelling Book" The autho
was constantly simplifying and improving
for although soon occupied in his dictionary
yet he always seemed to feel an especial il
teres. in his first venture, and well he might
for almost his whole support was derive
from the book Others copied his IDEAS hoI
ing to obtain share of the profits, and O
the century advanced the book was slowl
driven out of New England, the land of il
birth, by the improvements in school book,
yet the sales increased steadily, and it foun
refuge in the south and west, and even tray
eled to England In revised form it helpe
to educate the Confederate youth during tn
rebellion, and to day it can still be found i
schools here and there throughout th
country.